The big picture: The Duffer Brothers are sticking to their original plan of having Stranger Things run for just five seasons... well, sort of. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer said Stranger Things 4 has a runtime of nearly twice the length of any previous season. It featured nine scripts spanning more than 800 pages and took almost two years to film. Given its length and in an effort to get it to viewers as soon as possible, season four will be released in two volumes. The first will drop on May 27 with volume two following five weeks later on July 1.
Sadly (though not unexpectedly), "it's also the beginning of the end."
When writing the show's complete story arc from the beginning, the Duffer Brothers expected it would run four to five seasons. The story ended up being too large to compress into just four seasons, and as we'll soon see, "we are now hurtling toward our finale."
Season four will be the penultimate season; season five will be the last.
"It's been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time - and navigating the complexities of high school hasn't made things any easier. In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down."
Although it'll end in five, the brothers said there are still many more exciting stories to tell within the Stranger Things universe including new mysteries, new adventures and unexpected heroes. Here's to hoping they don't ruin a good thing by unnecessarily dragging it on for far too long.
"But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down."
